Apiano, a liquor cabinet, a bar, and a leather sofa--six or seven years ago these were the most fashionable household appointments for Taipei's up-and-comers to display their wealth and taste with.
"This Chinese-style bed is big, awkward, and hard. Let's dump it and get one with a spring mattress instead!" Such is the first step toward "modernization" taken by many young people when renovating the old homestead.
Boasting comfort, convenience, and functionality, Western-style furniture has muscled its way into nearly every household on Taiwan. Meanwhile, those castaway pieces of antique or replicated Chinese furniture have become the cherished treasures of Westerners and Japanese.
Along with the growth in Taiwan's economy, a rise in the general level of culture, and an increase in international contacts, many local Chinese have come to appreciate the charm of Chinese-style furniture from foreign friends, while others, having enjoyed all the products of Western civilization, have simply stopped to ask themselves: When even our last spiritual stronghold--the home--has become completely Westernized, is there anything left that's special about being Chinese?
Under these conditions, antique furniture from the Ming (1868-1644) and Ch'ing (1644-1911) dynasties, replicas, and even folk articles and artifacts have been regaining favor on Taiwan over the past two years and returning under a new guise to the modern home. And judging from the number of antique furniture and art shops that has recently sprung up in the tinier sections of Taipei, the fervor for antique furniture has only just begun.
Remarks Chiang Liang-p'ing, manager of Origins Antiques: "Four years ago, right after we opened, almost nine tenths of our customers were Japanese or Westerners. But over the past year or two the proportion of Chinese has climbed to about seven in ten."
The new customers generally share similar characteristics: They're cultured, they have time and money to spare, and they're middle-class "yuppies"--doctors, businessmen, academics, or creative people involved in the arts. More often than most people, they may invite foreign friends to their homes for a chat or dinner, and Chinese furniture and decorations provide an excellent subject of conversation, a good bridge for propagating culture.
Furniture propagates culture? Someone unfamiliar with traditional furniture may feel puzzled.
To take an example, the Ming-style huali wood set of kuan-mao chair, one of the pieces most often introduced into modern homes, actually illustrates within its smooth and simple contours the three great philosophies of China, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Confucianism stresses the importance of rank and ethics, and Kuan-mao chairs were reserved solely for the use of elderly couples or refined scholars--not for servants and commoners.
Judged by modern criteria, a Ming chair seems too high and too stiff, demanding a straight-backed, four-square posture that people today may find uncomfortable. In fact, the upright posture stands for an upright character and conforms to the Buddhist injunction to repress desire.
As for Taoism, the concept that man and nature are one is displayed in the correspondence between the chair's structure and the architectural layout of the traditional Chinese home. In fact, as Chiang Liang-p'ing points out, "not only chairs but traditional tables, desks, and beds all emerged from architectural concepts and all carry a sense of being modeled after nature, of displaying the macrocosm in the microcosm."
Besides its philosophical significance, Ming furniture, with its strong and simple lines, is deeply associated with calligraphy, the highest expression of Chinese culture. Both art forms emphasize the interaction of strength and weakness, the harmony of action and stillness.
Traditional Chinese furniture is characterized by several special manufacturing techniques, two of which are the use of raw lacquer and mortise and tenon joints.
Raw lacquer, according to Cheng Tseng-hu, an art professor at National Taiwan Normal University, is best able to bring out the natural beauty of wood's original finish. It shines more, the more it's rubbed; it looks newer as the years go by; and it can withstand high temperatures, so it won't be marred even if burned by a cigarette.
And mortise and tenon joints, precisely fit together without the use of nails or glue, are one of the glories of Chinese woodworking, remarkable for their beauty as well as their craftsmanship.
In using classical Chinese furniture to decorate the home, interior designers are taking advantage of the rich resources and options available to them today to give full rein to their creativity. Designer Tu Wen-cheng has mentioned three basic methods for employing classical Chinese furniture, methods which are probably common to many other designers as well.
The first method is arrangement. A room furnished in Western style, for instance, may be attractively set off by a pair of high and low Chinese tables displaying ceramics and pottery. As T'an Kuo-liang, another designer, points out, however, it's important that one style or the other clearly predominate. Otherwise the visual focus will be scattered and the feeling confused.
The second method is renovation, using modern concepts of design or manufacturing techniques to repair or recondition a broken or damaged piece of furniture and give it a new form or function.
The final method of employing classical Chinese furniture in the home is finding a new use for it. A Chinese-style bed, for example, may be turned to a new use by being moved into the library, covered with cushions and a little tea stand, and made into a comfortable place to sip tea.
"It's only because young people today haven't come into contact with traditional furniture for so long that they tend to think of it as outmoded stuff from their grandparents' time," the designer Ts'ai Sung-t'ao maintains. "Actually, if you just use your imagination a bit, these old pieces can greatly enrich modern life. And since they're products of slow work and meticulous craftsmanship, they've got an inexhaustible charm about them that makes them more lovely the more you look. They'll never be out of date."
Even more important--the transmission of our heritage begins at home!
[Picture Caption]
Can you imagine how a contemporary furnished room would look with this hung-mien canopied bed in it?
As seen in this round bathroom mirror, Western cosmetics, plastic flowers, and a Ming-style chair actually make up a harmonious whole. (photo taken at the home of Ts'ai Sung-t'ao)
How many memories are evoked by a canopied bed and a wu-tou dresser from grandmother's time?
Craftsmen at Origins Antiques labor meticulously to give old furniture a new look.
An old wooden trunk can serve as a footwear locker, a tea table, or a place to display decorations.
A pair of offering tables divide the room and add to its refinement. (photo courtesy of T'an Kuo-liang)
A k'ang chair and table, a large landscape painting, a carved lattice, kung lamps, and a full moon doorway, symbolizing perfection, preserve a thoroughly Chinese flavor. (photo courtesy of T'an Kuo-liang)
An intricately carved gold-plated bas-relief depicting a folk legend is understood and appreciated by few people today. (photo taken at the home of Ts'ai Sung-t'ao)
A pair of carved designs removed from a piece of old furniture and fitted with frames and mirrors, combine elegance with practicality.
T'an Kuo-liang arranged a Ming chair, a barrel stool, and a reddish purple column to create an interesting and harmonious effect.
A commonly seen imitation antique t'ai-shih chair matched with a red silk cushion designed by the owner and placed next to a colorful sliding door and a contemporary oil painting makes a distinctive combination. (photo taken at the home of Ts'ai Sung-t'ao)
Two Ch'ing black lacquer chairs are set against a glass partition behind which is a workroom with a "postmodernist" semicircular chair. (photo taken at the home of Ts'ai Sung-t'ao)
As seen in this round bathroom mirror, Western cosmetics, plastic flowers, and a Ming-style chair actually make up a harmonious whole. （photo taken at the home of Ts'ai Sung-t'ao）
How many memories are evoked by a canopied bed and a wu-tou dresser from grandmother's time?
Craftsmen at Origins Antiques labor meticulously to give old furniture a new look.
An old wooden trunk can serve as a footwear locker, a tea table, or a place to display decorations.
A pair of offering tables divide the room and add to its refinement. （photo courtesy of T'an Kuo-liang）
A k'ang chair and table, a large landscape painting, a carved lattice, kung lamps, and a full moon doorway, symbolizing perfection, preserve a thoroughly Chinese flavor. （photo courtesy of T'an Kuo-liang）
An intricately carved gold-plated bas-relief depicting a folk legend is understood and appreciated by few people today. （photo taken at the home of Ts'ai Sung-t'ao）
A pair of carved designs removed from a piece of old furniture and fitted with frames and mirrors, combine elegance with practicality.
T'an Kuo-liang arranged a Ming chair, a barrel stool, and a reddish purple column to create an interesting and harmonious effect.
A commonly seen imitation antique t'ai-shih chair matched with a red silk cushion designed by the owner and placed next to a colorful sliding door and a contemporary oil painting makes a distinctive combination. （photo taken at the home of Ts'ai Sung-t'ao）
Two Ch'ing black lacquer chairs are set against a glass partition behind which is a workroom with a "postmodernist" semicircular chair. （photo taken at the home of Ts'ai Sung-t'ao）
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